Moments: Korra Drabbles
by Little Bassoonist
Summary: The week after episode 5, I wrote a handful of drabbles for different Korra couples. Here they are.
1. Makorra - The Start

Mako lay supinely on his cot, the dim candle in his apartment offering little light by which to think. A few faint rumbles from beneath the floor reminded him of his brother in the gym, still training with that Korra girl. He grunted, annoyed.

_I said not bad, didn't I?_

Typical Bolin would find the Avatar, of all girls, and not even realize it. His brother was always so wrapped up in the first girl to give him the time of day. That was not what kept him awake. Never before had any of Bolin's fangirls caught Mako's eye. For sure, she wasn't Mako's "type" at all.

Physically, she was too masculine. Her broad shoulders and muscled form hinted at her immense strength. Mako preferred a slight, pale, dainty girl. Her olive skin reminded him of her foreign heritage; she was _different_. That unruly hair kept in a high ponytail—almost like a man's! But then there were her eyes, bright and blue and striking. _I wonder how they look when she waterbends._ However, a pair of eyes could not redeem an entire body.

Though he had only seen a glimpse of her bending skills in the gym, he knew that, as an Avatar, she could accomplish most anything. He imagined, for a moment, of what she was capable: bringing gigantic tidal waves crashing onto opponents and freezing them instantly; producing flares of fire—or even lightning!—more powerful than his own, to scorch any foe; soaring through the air on currents, perhaps playfully emulating the last Avatar by riding on an air scooter; sending fissures through the earth and raising pillars of rock to catapult people into the sky. How weak Bolin would look if she unleashed her full potential of earthbending! Mako smiled at the thought of his brother humiliated in his bending by _a girl_.

How readily she would embarrass his brother, too! That ego, that need for reassurance, that attitude. Just because she was the Avatar did not mean everyone had to accept her as eagerly as Bolin had. In fact, she seemed resentful toward Mako merely because he had not immediately taken to her. No sensible man would ever want to be tied to a girl that selfish and impulsive.

_But maybe it's time to be a little insensible…_

"Oh, shut up," he muttered to himself. "She's Bolin's."


	2. Masami - Ready

Asami stared in her gold-rimmed mirror, examining her face for any minute blemish. Her hair, which she desperately wished to be straight, fell in wavy ripples. If only it would stay in a ponytail, she might be able to keep it out of her way on her scooter. She wondered if the purple eye shadow would be appropriate against her green eyes. Was the lipstick too much? Even as a blossoming socialite, she felt she was just another face at a party. Too pale, too plain, trying too hard.

"I can't believe I have a date with a _real_ pro-bender!" she gushed to Lee, her handmaid. "All this time, I've followed their matches, especially the Fire Ferrets."

"I know, milady. You never fail to report on them."

"Do you think… do you think he'll like me?"

"Oh, miss, how could he not?"

_She's been paid to say that,_ Asami thought. _For once in my life, I want a _real_ compliment. Why isn't Mako's acceptance enough?_

"He's a pro-bender! Wouldn't he want someone… stronger? I'm the rich girl who's never had to do anything herself—why would he want to wait around for someone like me to keep up?"

Lee sighed. "You're beautiful, Asami. Just like your mother. Why can't you accept that?"

"Only if _he _accepts it."


	3. Tahnorra - Prey

It all started with a glance.

She peered over Bolin's shoulder as he loudly slurped his noodles to find a pair of mysterious, gray eyes locked on the space behind her head. She looked over her shoulder—nothing. She squeezed her eyes shut out of annoyance. Of course, the stranger was staring at _her_.

_Right. I'm the Avatar. I almost forgot._

Korra could not bring herself to tear her gaze from those eyes, _his_ eyes, with irises gleaming like reflections of the moon in the ocean. Combined with his vampire-white skin and dark, flowing hair, they should have alarmed her, but she hardly felt more than a chill. His wiry form, his smooth face, and that satisfied smile, as if he enjoyed her reciprocated stares. The sight of those two gorgeous women at his side sent a pang of jealousy through her heart. True, Bolin was nice and funny, but he did not possess that eerie, reality-shattering aura.

When he stood up, he brushed the girls aside and moved with surprising grace. Her heart pounded with excitement, anticipation, and a hint of fear.

Mesmerized by his gait as he approached her, Korra attempted to heed Bolin's warning, but failed miserably. She was torn between her fixation on his unsettling behavior and her disgust at his gall, his expression. And that _voice_!

For a moment, she almost wished she had accepted his offer of "private lessons," if only to hear him speak, or perhaps to intimidate him with her water bending. His audacity at such a remark!—but she also remembered the smoothness, the temptation in his tone. Why did she react so strongly to such small gestures? Maybe it was her lack of experience. After all, before she came to Republic City, she had no admirers but Howl, and then she was bombarded with distractions from men and so many confusing feelings. It seemed her naivety made her vulnerable to almost and man's attentions, but why did it have to be _him_?

Korra shivered at the memory of his face, so close to hers. His proximity made his body heat brush against hers in a ghost touch. Though they never made contact, she felt the way his lips parted when he spoke and every slight readjustments of his stance. Rather than uncomfortable, she felt on fire. Was it her anger or her attraction? That second meeting before his match only made her want to hate him more, but she could not resist those eyes and could not help but melt at his voice, even as he insulted her.

The question repeated in her mind. What made _that _man, of any she could find, so infuriatingly appealing?

Even as she sent a jet of water through his picture, confusion swept through her brain. So distracted, so captivated, so disgusted. Perhaps she would be granted a glance at his body if she sent him careening into the pool…


	4. Tahnorra - Private Lessons

Private Lessons

In the wake of that awful, awful moment—a tangle mess of lips and roses and tears and so many feelings—Korra sprinted away from either of the brothers. She could not face them, not yet. Her feet carried her blindly; she trusted they could guide her away from her overwhelming emotions. However, when she found herself at the door to Tahno's gym, she paused.

_Him?_

"Korra," she told herself, "it's either Tahno or the mess back with the Fire Ferrets…"

She straightened her shoulders and rapped firmly on the door. A low voice called from within, "come in."

When Korra entered, she hardly expected to find Tahno soaking, shirtless, and completely alone. She immediately fixated on the smoothness of his muscles, his impressive height, how fluidly he moved with his element. He drew water from a basin near him and sent it careening towards a target dummy, freezing it around the mannequin's head. He grunted, a sound that both chilled and warmed her.

He finally noticed her. "Well, well, well—Avatar Korra, spying on my personal training time."

"I am _not _spying, Pretty Boy." Her eyes followed a droplet of sweat from his shoulder to the waist of his trousers. He saw.

"Then what brings you here?"

She gritted her teeth, unable to say what she wanted without sounding like one of his pathetic fangirls. "Can I still take you up on that offer of those… uh, 'private lessons?'"

"Well, I don't know, Uh-vatar. Are you going to run scared back to your polar bear dog again?"

Anger boiled from her gut. "I did _not_ run away!"

Tahno looked amused. "Shut the door." When nobody could see them, he added, "What made you change your mind?"

"Something… came up. With the Fire Ferrets."

He grinned. "I saw." Korra's mouth became a perfect _o_. "But don't worry. I don't think that you're in the wrong. People should be free to kiss whomever they want. I'll be your little rebound if you want, as long as you don't expect there to be anything more to this."

"So, a no-strings-attached, one-time-deal, and then we pretend nothing ever happened?"

Tahno's smile widened. "Of course, if we're going to do this, you'll have to get out of those heavy Water Tribe clothes."

That night, Korra never would have imagined that weeks later, she would be responsible for teaching Tahno how to waterbend again. Neither of them thought anything of the future or how much this would much. She used him and he used her, but that would not be the end of it.


End file.
